brown@aero.ARPA (Leonard Brown) (02/21/86)
In article <1401@ames.UUCP> eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) writes: >I heard something to the effect that this was how Alan Turing committed >suicide (note a sub note to net.suicide). I have yet to look it up, but >what I heard from what was "a reliable source...." was that Turing >refined the poison, coated an apple, and took a bite. According to Andrew Hodges' book, _Alan Turing, the Enigma_, Turing had an elaborate chemical laboratory in the potting shed behind his home. He had ample access to chemicals, including cyanide, since he was on a University faculty and could get them from stores. When his body was found, there was a partially eaten apple next to the bed, but no autopsy was performed and the apple was not tested for presence of cyanide. The coroner simply ruled death by suicide without any other evidence. It seems unlikely that he refined the cyanide from the apple seeds. -- Leonard Brown: brown@aerospace.ARPA brown@aero.UUCP {seismo!hao|tektronix}!hplabs!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!aero!brown